This time, as Bree kissed Titus, she wasn’t just caught up in the heat of the moment, going along with something inevitable at the mercy of her body.

Though Titus still offered pleasure that felt like an oncoming tidal wave, this was so much more than that.

Last night, she’d opened up to him, and it had felt so good. And today, when he’d let her talk to Sever but been there so she could run into his arms, she’d realized just how much she’d come to depend on him.

And love him.

Biff, too.

And now he’d gotten rid of Geoff, and everything just seemed too good to be true. Or maybe fate was just making up for all the bad things she’d been handed, finally rewarding her for being willing to trust.

All she knew was Titus was a good person, the first person not to have any bad motives concerning her, the first person she could truly trust.

She could already see a life together, and though he never said anything about it, she could tell he felt that, too. It was in the soft way he looked at her over the breakfast table, the way she felt in his arms.

And the quiet, urgent promise in his kiss, that he would be there forever if she let him.

As he pulled back from her lips and dipped to her neck, placing searing kisses there, she moaned. “Let’s go to my room,” she said when she got her breath back, and he nodded and hefted her up in his arms.

She was getting used to being carried. She’d always been small, despite being curvy, and she’d thought she’d hate it when someone picked her up. That it would be a loss of control.

But with Titus, she felt safe, supported. Protected, though it was still terrifying to admit it.

She still remembered the deliciously naughty things he’d done to her the first time. Would this be any different?

He walked into the bedroom, and she could already tell the atmosphere was different between them.

As he sat her on the bed, his expression was almost reverent. There was the carefulness that was always in his eyes, as if he were holding back, but there was also more.

Burning heat. Want. Need. When she looked in his eyes, she could swear she saw a desperate need to possess her, to make her his.

Was she only imagining it? As he came over her on the bed, trapping her beneath his huge, muscular body, she didn’t think so. Every move he made seemed designed to bind her to him. He took care of her home, took care of her pleasure, won over her dog, and protected her as far as she let him.

Had she really found a start to her happy ending?

He removed her clothes as he kissed her neck and her shoulder, pulling her shirt over her head, then unhooking her bra and resuming kissing as quickly as possible. One hard, large hand played with the loop of her flannel pajama pants, and then he yanked those away as well, leaving her only in panties. The next second, he freed her from those.

She gasped as he rose on his powerful hands, looking down at her totally naked body. She felt she could blush from head to toe. She started to cover her body, feeling embarrassed, but he grabbed both hands and pinned them at her sides, looking his fill.

She watched his face, tense, focused, and stared at his braid. “Can you let your hair down?” she asked.

He cocked his head, looking puzzled by the request, but then reached back and grabbed the tie that held it, pulling it out and letting the waves unravel down his back.

It was more gorgeous than she’d even imagined, and she caught her breath at the sight of it. She’d never pictured herself with a man with hair longer than hers, but somehow, it just made him that much more unique and impressive. It helped that he had the body to carry it off, masculine and sculpted so he looked more gladiator than high-fashion model.

“You like it?” he asked nervously.

He was always so confident except when it came to her. Maybe she needed to give him more validation. Yes, that was probably fair. She reached up and put a hand in his hair, marveling at how silky it was. “I love it.” Her hand trailed down to his crotch, cupping the bulge there and making him jump. His icy eyes pinned on hers. “I love all of it.”

His eyes seemed to flare with blue flame, and he dove over her, kissing her neck, her breasts, trailing down her stomach to tease the inside of her belly button with his tongue roughly, making her arch and jerk.

Before she knew it, he was between her legs again, swiping gently at her center, which was already aching and wet for him.

Her hand still felt seared by the hard heat she’d felt playfully, and now she desperately wanted it inside her. She wanted to be one with him. Didn’t care if it made her vulnerable. Didn’t care if it meant they were serious after.

She was ready to go all in with Titus.

She fumbled with his shirt, pulling at it as he sucked at her center, bringing her closer to orgasm in a way that seemed way too easy.

Though she fought, she felt herself go over the edge with one expert swipe of his tongue, and as pleasure swept through her, he came up to catch her in his arms, holding her against his chest as she writhed against him, feeling totally suspended, totally overwhelmed.

When he laid her back against the bed and looked ready to start again, she shook her head. She reached up, grabbed a section of his hair, wrapped it around her fist, pulling him closer, and said into his ear, “I want you inside me. Now.”

He let out a growl of approval, and she released his hair so he could get off the bed and disrobe. She watched, hungry for every bit of skin he revealed, marveling at each bit of tanned smoothness, each quickly flexing muscle bared to her gaze.

When he was standing in front of her, totally naked, every bit of his muscular warrior’s body before her, his gorgeous hair trailing over his shoulders wildly, she had to hold her breath for just a second to take him in.

Could that all really be hers if she said yes to him? Why did she get the feeling that was the case?

Before she could think about it much, he took a step forward, and she put out both arms, gesturing for him to get back on the bed before she went crazy with want.

This time, he got on the bed between her legs, spreading them in front of him. She looked up at him, thinking how impossibly huge he was, so broad in the shoulders. She looked lower and wondered how that… thing was going to fit inside her. Beautiful though it was, it seemed impossible.

Keeping eye contact, she felt him slip a finger inside her, gently rubbing. He hit a sensitive spot, and she arched, crying out, and a small smile lit his handsome face.

She relaxed, and he slid another finger in, then another, and she started to feel things would be fine. As long as she got him inside her. If this felt so good, how good would his member feel?

She wriggled her hips, working down a bit on the bed to get closer, and he let out a laugh as he pinned her legs, keeping her knees spread.

“I’m going to be careful, go slow. Okay, princess?”

“I’m nobody’s princess,” she said, embarrassed.

“You can be whatever you want as long as you let me worship you.”

She felt like he wanted to add, “For the rest of my life,” but didn’t. She didn’t know why she felt like that. It was just a wavelength she felt they were on sometimes when she tuned into it.

But was it just wishful thinking, her artistic imagination at work?

He slowly pushed into her, and as he stretched her entrance, she tensed up instantly, holding her breath.

“Relax,” he said. “I’ll stop anytime you want me to.”

Looking up into his calm, familiar eyes made her calm again, and she was able to experience pure pleasure as he slid the rest of the way in.

When he was fully seated inside her, she looked up at him with a sense of wonder. Nothing had ever felt so right or so incredible. It was more than just sex. It was something… cosmic. Out of this world. And he hadn’t even started moving yet.

Then he did, and it felt like the world tilted on its axis. She gasped as he pulled out and then thrust in again, fitting perfectly in her wet heat, filling her with pressure and pleasure. He did it again, and she bit back a scream, feeling as if every thrust were pushing her hard toward the edge of forever.

Or a kind of pleasure that seemed it would go on that long.

He continued to thrust, and she moved her hips to eagerly meet him, thinking all the while of how good he’d been to her, how he’d showed her love without ever showing pressure. How he’d kept it all inside only to bring it out at this moment, when he could show her wholly how he felt.

With one final stroke inside her, she felt herself go over the edge, hard, and dug her nails into his shoulders, clutching her to him and wrapping her legs around him, locking them so he couldn’t move away from her.

That seemed to be too much for him, and she felt him jerk in her arms and had to pull back, even in the midst of her release, to get a look at her powerful Viking as he went over the edge with her.

It was the most beautiful sight she’d ever seen, and as she grabbed him again and another wave overcame her, she knew one thing for certain.

This wasn’t just sex anymore. It wasn’t a one-night stand or even a casual relationship.

She was one hundred, one thousand, percent in love with this man.

In love with Titus.

She hoped he could feel it—in her hands as he held him, in her breaths as she slowly came down from her high. In the way she locked him against her.

She finally had to fall back on the mattress, letting go of him as the last of her strength left her, and she sighed in pleasure at what she’d just experienced with him.

His blue eyes glowed and his smile was warm, and he fell over her, supporting himself on his hands but keeping his body close to hers. Caging her in but only in the best way. She could leave at any time she wanted, and in that way, she still felt free.

“Thank you, Titus,” she said.

“No, thank you, beautiful,” he replied, kissing her forehead and pulling out of her gently.

He brought a towel in and gently cleaned up before curling up behind her, holding her against his big, warm body.

Somehow, though it was midafternoon and she’d just had sex with her contractor, everything in the world just felt right.

So just for a little while, in his arms, she allowed herself to fall asleep.